The publishing company has doubled-down on the Trump cartoon not being the reason for de Adder’s contract termination. Their initial statement cited bringing back Perry as a reason for letting de Adder go.

Perry told CBC that the proposal from Brunswick News was not set up as replacing the outgoing cartoonist.

De Adder took to Twitter on Monday to tell his side of the story. He had worked 17 years with Brunswick News, which is privately owned by one of Canada’s richest families, the Irvings.

Brunswick News has a monopoly over nearly all of the newspapers in New Brunswick and has been slammed for not being critical of parent owner Irving Group of Companies and its subsidiaries.

The companies — which include oil and gas, shipping and transportation — are worth an estimated $10 billion.

It got to the point where I didn't submit any Donald Trump cartoons for fear that I might be fired.

De Adder said it wasn’t just Trump that was a taboo subject for him to approach. When he drew cartoons slightly critical of the New Brunswick premier, who is a former Irving executive, de Adder claimed they were “systematically axed.”

De Adder, who lives in Halifax, has been picked up as a regular cartoonist for the Toronto Star, where Perry’s work is also published.